Nectarine Upside Down Cake

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 4 nectarines

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Cut your nectarines into 1/2″ thick wedges, set aside
3. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
4. Melt your butter over low heat. Once the butter has melted, pour half of it into your pan. I used a spring form pan, but the butter leaked a little, use a 9inch pie pan or cast iron skillet.
5. Then top the butter off with brown sugar.
6. Arrange the nectarine slices on the bottom of the pie pan.
7. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, 4 tablespoons butter and eggs. Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula.
8. Pour the batter over the nectarines and even it out with the spatula.
9. Place into oven and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
10. Let the cake cool for about 5-10 minutes.
11. Use a knife to cut around the edge of the cake.
12. Then place a serving plate over the pan, and turn the cake over onto the serving plate.
13. Serve it hot, serve it cool, serve it with ice cream.. you just can’t go wrong.

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There was debate here about this being a peach or a nectarine.. They told me what I got was Pesca noce, which I thought was a nectarine.

So I did some googling and found out that there isn’t much difference in fact.. The main physical difference is that peaches have a fuzzy coating, whereas nectarines are smooth and do not have this coating. They are almost identical genetically, but there is a gene variant between the two. Peaches have a dominant allele (variant form of a gene), which results in the soft, fuzzy coating on the outside. They can be freestone, which means the pit falls easily away from the flesh, or clingstone, where the pits stay stuck to the flesh. Peaches can come in yellow or white varieties.

Nectarines, however, express a recessive gene that results in no fuzz growth on the outside, and smooth skin. They tend to be smaller, firmer, and more aromatic than peaches, but they can also be more susceptible to diseases. Like peaches, they can be freestone or clingstone, and they also come in white and yellow varieties.

These differences between peaches and nectarines are really quite subtle, and when cooking with them, they can be used interchangeably. (1)